W. Volleyball: Michigan upsets No. 2 Card to end Stanford’s season in Regional Final

Setter Karissa Cook and Stanford's three other seniors played their final collegiate match last Saturday, as Michigan upset No. 2 Stanford to end the Cardinal's quest for its first national championship since 2004. (DAVID ELKINSON/StanfordPhoto.com)
Setter Karissa Cook and Stanford's three other seniors played their final collegiate match last Saturday, as Michigan upset No. 2 Stanford to end the Cardinal's quest for its first national championship since 2004. (DAVID ELKINSON/StanfordPhoto.com)
By The Daily Sports Staff
Dec. 15, 2012, 9:30 p.m.
W. Volleyball: Michigan upsets No. 2 Card to end Stanford's season in Regional Final
Setter Karissa Cook and Stanford’s three other seniors played their final collegiate match last Saturday, as Michigan upset No. 2 Stanford to end the Cardinal’s quest for its first national championship since 2004. (DAVID ELKINSON/StanfordPhoto.com)

The No. 2 Stanford women’s volleyball team’s season ended in the final of the Berkeley Regional of the NCAA tournament last Saturday, as it fell to Michigan in the tournament for the third time in four years.

The Wolverines, who lost in the Final Four on Thursday, pulled off the upset in four eerily symmetric sets, 25-20, 20-25, 20-25, 20-25. Pac-12 champion Stanford (30-4, 19-1 Pac-12) got 13 kills from junior blocker Carly Wopat and another double-double from freshman Jordan Burgess — who finished with 13 on the year — but could not overcome Michigan junior hitter Lexi Erwin’s 23 kills and 16 digs.

Stanford has now gone eight years without a national championship, the longest streak since its first title in 1992. It has won six conference titles over that same eight-year stretch.

The Cardinal loses four seniors to graduation: Hannah Benjamin, Jessica Walker, Karissa Cook and Hayley Spelman. Though none of them started more than nine matches this season, their departure will certainly leave a void on an already young team.

—Joseph Beyda

The Daily Sports Staff is the collective moniker of an overworked, beleaguered, underpaid collection of sportswriters that feel comfortable enough with their own self-identities to give up any sense of individualism for the good of the sports section. To contact The Daily Sports Staff, send an email to the managing editor(s) of the sports staff (sports 'at' stanforddaily.com), keepers of the souls of those sportswriters.

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